Resum:

The thesis consists of three chapters. The first one ("International Convergence and Local Divergence") and the third one ("Trade and Migration: a U-shaped Transition in Eastern Europe") are economic-geography models that study the relation between international trade openness and the location of productive factors, with the subsequent implications for welfare and
convergence. The second chapter ("Skill-Upgrading and the Saving of Immigrants") develops a dynamic model of saving and human-capital accumulation with two types of skills in order to explain how unskilled migration may increase the amount of funds devoted to financing higher
education among natives